1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an IC card reader.
2. Related Art
A typical conventional IC card reader 101 is shown in FIG. 7. As shown, the IC card reader 101 includes with a contact array (not shown) which is brought into contact with a contact terminal pattern of an IC card for communication with the IC card, and a contact carriage 102 which is movable supporting the contact array. To bring the contact array into contact with the IC card or break the contact, the contact carriage 102 is moved obliquely to the moving direction of the IC card by a link mechanism. The contact carriage 102 is positioned or positionally regulated in the directions b perpendicular to the card moving direction by guiding the side faces of the contact carriage 102 by the side faces 106 of or defining an opening 105 formed in a frame 104.
In the structure where the contact carriage 102 is positioned in its lateral directions b by the utilization of the frame 104, the guide portions including the side faces 106 are long. Therefore, the load is likely to be large, and a returning coiled spring 107 of a strong spring force is required. And a reaction force of the IC card generated when it is manually operated is large, and this makes it difficult to handle the IC card reader 101.
The structure having the long guide portions formed with the side faces 106 has the following problems. It is difficult to secure a satisfactory dimensional-accuracy for the guide width of the guide portions. The lateral distance between the side faces 106 is reduced, a clearance between them is too large, and it is difficult to position the arrayed contacts of the contact carriage 102 to the contact terminal pattern of the IC card.
There is known an IC card reader equipped with a detecting device with a plate spring located in the card path for the detecting means for detecting that the IC card is inserted up to the insertion end position is used for the conventional IC card reader. The detecting device detects the insertion of card by use of a motion of the plate spring in the card thickness direction. Because of this, the detecting device cannot handle the IC cards of different thickness. For example, a thick IC card is inserted, and the detecting device operates to detect the arrival of the IC card at the insertion end position. At this time, the contact carriage being lowered does not yet reach a satisfactory level, however. Therefore, the contacts do not come in contact with the IC card. Thus, the card position to be detected is not coincident with a correct one. If the IC card reader commences its communication with the IC card performed under this condition, it will fail to communicate with the IC card.
There is known an IC card reader in which the card insertion detecting device is combined with a card lock mechanism. In the card reader, the arrival of the inserted IC card at the insertion end position is detected, and then the lock mechanism operates to drive a solenoid and to lock the IC card. In case where the card, which is locked within the IC card reader, has some play, there is a danger that the card is unlocked even during communication. To be more precise, when an operator pulls the IC card under communication from the IC card reader or moves such a card in the card moving directions, the card moves a subtle distance and is out of a detecting range provided for the card insertion detecting means, and consequently the solenoid of the lock mechanism operates to remove the locking state. Therefore, this conventional IC card reader is always placed in a danger that the IC card is pulled out of the IC card reader before data communication is not completed. This gives rise to serious problems in utilizing the data.